The present invention relates generally to guards for rain gutters on buildings, and more particularly, is directed to a gutter guard having two drainage sections and a heating mechanism associated therewith.
It is well-known to provide guards on top of gutters to prevent leaves from falling into the gutters, while permitting water to drain into the gutters. Examples of known arrangements presently being sold are, for example, the system sold under the registered trademark “GUTTER TOPPER” by Gutter Topper Ltd., L.L.C. Of Amelia, Ohio; the system sold under the registered trademark “GUTTER CAP” by Selective Seamless Siding Co. of Naperville, Ill.; and the system sold under the registered trademark “LEAFPROOF” by Eran Industries, Inc. of Omaha, Nebr.
In these systems, the gutter guard includes a sheet of metal that covers the gutter, and has a curved forward end that extends back into the gutter. Thus, leaves and the like are prevented from entering the gutter, but because of surface tension, water flows along the forward curvature of the guard and falls through small openings thereat into the gutter, where the water is carried away to the down spout.
One problem with these systems is that during a heavy water flow, because of the large volume of water, much of the rain water will tend to fall off the roof from the curved end of the gutter guard, rather than flow around the curved end into the gutter. In such case, the gutter guard, although preventing leaves and the like from entering the gutter, does not provide the function of guiding the rain water into the gutter.
In an attempt to solve this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,775 to Demartini discloses a gutter guard in which there are bumps to slow down the velocity of the rain water so that it travels around the bend into the gutter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,891 to Albracht discloses a gutter guard having water slowing means in the form of an S-shaped bend spaced rearwardly of the forward curved portion.
However, the problem with these approaches is that, during heavy rain, there is still too much rain water, so that much of the rain water will still fall off the roof from the curved end of the gutter guard, and will not travel by surface tension around the curved front end, into the gutter.
Another problem with such gutter guards is that ice and snow tend to accumulate thereon, which impedes the flow of water, and or, defeats the surface tension aspect so that the water falls from the roof at the curved end of the gutter guard.
Various proposals have been presented for adding heating elements to gutter guards in order to avoid this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,696 to Schroeder discloses a gutter guard having heating elements as lengthwise extending strips on the flat upper surface portion of the gutter guard. U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,526 to Taouil discloses bent, raised portions extending along the length thereof, with heating cables positioned to the lower surface of the bent, raised portions. The heating cables are positioned between the roof and the gutter guard. In order to retain the heating cables in place during assembly, a dielectric adhesive-tape secures the cables in the bent, raised portions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,563 to Tiburzi discloses modular ice and snow removal heating panels for a gutter guard system having a built-in flexible heating layer.
However, none of these proposals are entirely satisfactory in that they are complex and burdensome to assemble, and are costly.